Jakes to start 11th and Rahal 21st on the Grand Prix of Alabama

Graham Rahal set the 11th fastest lap in Group 1, Round 1 and did not advance to Round 2. Near the end of his run, he was on what was his fastest lap to that point and closed on a car that had ended his run and Graham’s overall lap time suffered.

James Jakes, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Photo by: Mike Geng

GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The Midas / Big O Tires car is not too far off. In our qualifying group, Dixon blocked me on our fast lap. Was it going to be that much better? No, probably only a tenth or two and we wouldn’t have advanced based on lap times.

It looks like we got the harder group because we would have been around third with our lap time in the second group and advanced.

Unfortunately our group was stacked and I was P11 with a 1:07.4 and that would have put me in the top-six in Group 2 and would have advanced if we did that time there.

We just have to keep our heads down and work hard for tomorrow. We will have to have an alternate strategy because you can’t pass all of those cars.”

JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I was a little disappointed in qualifying to be honest; we thought we had a little bit more than that in the Acorn Stairlifts car.

We were relatively quick on Friday and this morning we seemed to have taken a few steps back. But we are in a position where we can get a good result so we will make sure we work hard overnight, have a good strategy and get a good result for the Acorn Stairlifts team.”